Democrats try to force Trump's tax returns on House floor

House Republicans beat back a Democratic attempt to smoke out President Donald Trump’s tax returns Monday, after the issue was forced on the floor by an obscure parliamentary move.

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) filed a privileged resolution Monday night calling on Trump to release his tax returns, saying the detailed documents could aid ongoing investigations into potential links between the president, his associates and Russia.

The House voted along party lines to table the resolution, effectively killing the proposal, but not before Democrats demanded a roll call vote forcing Republicans to go on the record.

The move is just the latest tack by House Democrats to force Republicans to take tough votes, either in committee or on the House floor, regarding Trump’s potential conflicts of interest and business dealings.

Democrats have called on Trump to release his tax returns for months but redoubled their efforts in recent weeks after the resignation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and reports of frequent contact between Trump associates and Russia during the campaign.

While not used frequently, House members have turned to privileged resolutions when they want to take dramatic action to force a vote on an issue that leadership would rather ignore. For instance, lawmakers beat back a House Freedom Caucus attempt to impeach the IRS commissioner with a privileged resolution late last year.

The Democratic resolution is Pascrell’s second recent attempt to force Republicans’ hand on Trump’s tax returns. Earlier this month he circulated a letter calling on Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) to formally request the tax documents.

Pascrell, a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, also backed a similar amendment during a panel meeting two weeks ago. Republicans opposed the amendment on a party-line vote.

“My belief is that if Congress begins to use its powers to rummage around in the tax returns of the president, what prevents Congress from doing the same to average Americans?” Brady told reporters at the time.

Pascrell’s resolution calls on Congress to request Trump’s tax documents dating back to 2006 for review by Ways and Means members, who would then vote to report the information to the full House.

Democrats are also leaning on other parliamentary procedures to force Republican action on the Trump administration.

Memo For Authors

Attention authors, publishers and creative professionals. If you want your books to be seen by potential readers, now it's the time to start your promotional campaign. All book promotions start with authorexpo.com.